Author(s): Hongbing Chen, Xilin Chen, Sizhuo Li, Hanwan Ding
School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044 China
International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy, vol. 3, no. 4, October 2014: pp. 395-400
ISSN: 2315-4462 (Print)
ISSN: 2373-3594 (Online)
Digital Object Identifier: 10.12720/sgce.3.4.395-400

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Abstract: Many researchers employed air or water for the active cooling of PV to achieve higher electrical efficiency, but additional energy consumption for fan or water pump may reduce the net power output. Therefore, this paper provided a study on the electrical performance of PV panel with passive fin cooling of natural ventilation with the consideration of the effect of PV panel tilt angle, solar radiation, air temperature and wind velocity as well as fin size on PV energy performance. The study showed that there existed a PV tilt angle resulting in the minimum electrical efficiency and the maximum power output. Higher intensity of solar radiation led to lower PV electrical efficiency and the efficiency dropped to the minimum around 11:40 during the day time in Beijing. The PV electrical efficiency decreased in linear with the increasing air temperature, but it increased with the increasing wind velocity. The effect of fin height on the electrical efficiency seemed to be very slight. The average electrical efficiency of PV panel with fins was 0.27~1.14% higher than that of PV panel without fins under various conditions in this study.

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Keywords: Passive cooling, natural ventilation, PV panel, electrical performance

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